Bill Gates admitted he is "not satisfied" with Microsoft as the tech giant has lagged behind in innovations in the gadget market.

In an interview with Charlie Rose on "CBS This Morning," the Microsoft chairman and philanthropist praised CEO Steve Ballmer's leadership but said neither excutive was happy with the company's status quo.

"There's a lot of things like cellphones where we didn't get out in the lead very early," the 57-year-old billionaire said in the interview. "We didn't miss cellphones, but the way we went about it didn't allow us to get the leadership. It's clearly a mistake."

Gates laughed off Rose when the journalist said that most the chatter surrounding Microsoft these days either prescribes ways to fix its woes or wonders what went wrong.

"There were a lot of amazing things that Steve's leadership got done with the company last year: Windows 8 is key to the future, the Surface computer, Bing — people are seeing is a better search product, Xbox," he said. "But is it enough? No, he and I are not satisfied that in terms of breakthrough things that we're doing everything possible."

Rose also asked Gates about his work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is working to eliminate polio by 2018. Other endeavors the Gates Foundation is pushing for include more high school courses that cover science and history and clean energy projects.